


Water of the Womb

by Rainbow_Foxes



Series: FemJay Weekend 2020 [8]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Blood and Injury, Cassandra Cain and Jason Todd are Siblings, Cassandra Cain is Black Bat, F/F, Female Jason Todd, Gen, Gun Violence, Gunshot Wounds, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Relationship Reveal, Sandra Woosan is Jason Todd's Parent, Stephanie Brown is Batgirl, Violence, but it's familial not romantic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:22:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26450335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rainbow_Foxes/pseuds/Rainbow_Foxes
Summary: Written for the Fem Jay Week 2020 Day 3 prompt: Meta/AugmentationsCass doesn't like Faye, and she probably never will. She can't forgive her for all that she's done to their family.But when she watches Faye fight, something starts niggling at the back of her head. It looksfamiliarin a way Cass doesn't want to place.She doesn't want to think about what that familiarity might mean.
Relationships: Cassandra Cain & Jason Todd, Stephanie Brown/Cassandra Cain
Series: FemJay Weekend 2020 [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1919755
Comments: 13
Kudos: 113
Collections: FemJay Week 2020





	Water of the Womb

**Author's Note:**

> As stated, this is for the [Fem Jay Week](https://femjaytodd.tumblr.com/) event over on Tumblr. Go check it out if you have time.
> 
> A note on naming: In Red Hood and the Outlaws (2016) #23, It's stated that Jason is named after his grandfather. in #25, it's revealed that Faye "Ma" Gunn is Jason's grandmother. It stands to reason that if Jason had been born AFAB, she'd have been named Faye after her grandmother.

The first clue comes on a routine patrol.

Cass very rarely works with Faye. There’s three reasons for this, the first being unfamiliarity with each other, the second being a matter of placing and timing, and the last being Cass’s distaste for Faye’s methods and previous attacks against the family. She knows that the others have forgiven the woman for what she’s done, but Cass has not. She doesn’t have the lingering attachment to Faye that Dad, Dick, and Tim do that makes her so easy to forgive and so hard to cut out of their lives. Even Steph and Duke have a fond memory or two of the first Blue Jay flying high across the skies at night, and Damian and Faye share a mother and a bond that Cass isn’t sure the others can quite see.

One of the first lessons Bruce and Babs taught her was that she didn’t owe anyone forgiveness, that she could choose who she let in her life. And so she has chosen to not forgive Faye for what she’s done and demanded, to not make a space for the older woman in her heart.

Faye, for her part, has respected that. When her offers to spend time together were met with a firm “No” from Cass, Faye had backed off and not asked again. Their interactions are short and to the point, nothing beyond “please pass the salt” at dinner and the rare “got one running your way, Black Bat” over the comms. They do not patrol together, they don’t run missions together, and Bruce has observed enough to know not to pair them for operations.

Except sometimes Tim breaks his leg and Steph decides to stay in to make sure he actually rests, and Dad is knee deep in an investigation with Damian tagging along, and Dick is working his own beat in Blüdhaven, and Duke doesn’t come out at night unless it's an emergency. She could have asked Babs for an assist from one of the Birds of Prey, but that would have garnered her an arched eyebrow dripping with both curiosity and disappointment.

So here she is, out on patrol with someone she doesn’t trust. She can’t settle, can’t enjoy the freedom of running the rooftops like she normally does. Faye’s presence has the hairs on the back of her neck constantly on end and her muscles tense. She knows Faye feels the same tension, can see it in the stiff line of her spine and the way she rolls her shoulders. Neither of them are happy about the arrangement, but they make due.

The first collar of the night is easy but also not. It’s an assault in progress, three large men as the aggressors and a young woman — maybe a teenager, but Cass isn’t good at telling ages — as the victim. The intent of the attackers are clear in how they lean in and leer, and Cass knows that Faye sees it too from how she tenses. This is the kind of crime that sets Faye off and puts bullets in heads. Cass won’t let that happen.

She jumps off the building before Faye can make her move, only the sound of her cape billowing behind her providing a warning to her targets. They move away from their victim just slightly and Cass fills the space, further pushing them away from the woman. She knows that she could have used some of the batarangs to take at least one of the men out, but she’s too pent up and needs the fight. Besides, she’s always preferred her own hands to any sort of weapon.

She’s aware that Faye is a half-step behind her, covering her back in a frankly unnecessary way. To call the three men untrained would be a compliment, Cass could take them blindfolded and with a broken arm. She knocks her two out by harshly bashing their heads together.

With  _ both _ arms broken.

She pulls out her zip-ties and secures their hands firmly behind their back, and then moves them into the recovery position. She probably concussed them but she can’t really bring herself to care. She turns to see that Faye’s opponent is in a similar state, though his face is significantly bloodier and one of his arms isn’t sitting right in his socket. But he’s breathing and doesn’t have any new holes in him as far as she can tell. That's really the best Cass can expect.

Faye has moved to tending to the victim. She’s removed her helmet, revealing her dark curly bob to frizz in the evening humidity and leaving only a red domino to conceal her. It makes her look younger than she likes to project, reminding Cass that Faye is only about a year and a half older than her. Faye’s expression is soft but her voice is softer. Gentle, slow, and even, the older woman is providing comfort with simple repeated statements. Her posture is open, keeping her hands in clear sight of the trembling woman and positioning herself so that the woman can lean into a steadying hand or take more space if she needs it. 

It is all genuine concern, projected openly and honestly in a way Cass has never seen from her. The woman responds well to it, her sobs slowing to hiccups, her trembling form taking comfort in Faye’s hand on her arm. 

Cass cannot help being jealous. It rears up in her, grumbling and ugly and with two heads. One, she wonders how Faye can genuinely care for a stranger but not for their family. She saves no gentleness for her siblings or father, spitting anger and drawing blood like the stray cats that rule the alleyways. She throws every kindness given to her away, bites every outstretched hand. 

When she feels like being kind, Cass can acknowledge that all of Faye’s yelling and violence are thin veils for deep wells of hurt and fear that drown the older woman completely. But being hurt is not an excuse to cause hurt — especially to those who had little to do with it.

The second root of jealousy, the one Cass is less willing to admit to, is just how easily Faye can provide what someone needs. Cass can read everything about a person, can know their thoughts and feelings and intent from a once over, but she never knows how to react to them. Sure she can meet violence with violence, that part is easy enough. But what Faye is doing now, providing exactly the kind of comfort someone needs, saying the perfect words to soothe a victim? It’s beyond her. No matter how hard she tries, she never knows what she needs to do to ease a mind or push buttons the way Faye does. The older woman has an innate way with people that leaves Cass feeling... inadequate. 

She shakes her thoughts off physically, moving her body fully as if she can wick them away like Titus does the rain from his fur. There is still work to be done. She approaches Faye and the victim, her steps light as always. She knows the exact moment that Faye spots her as the older woman ever so slightly tilts her head in Cass’s direction.

“We all good, Black Bat?” Faye doesn’t spare her a full glance, keeping both Cass and the victim in her line of sight. Cass doesn’t speak, doesn’t even really move, but Faye still gets the message. “Good. I’ll call it in. You have any snacks or whatever? One of those little mandarin oranges you like?”

Cass is taken aback, she didn’t expect Faye to know anything about her, really, let alone her food preferences. She does have a few tucked into one of her pouches for on-patrol snacking. She would question why Faye wants one, but it’s clear in her body: the slight tilt of her head back to the victim, the way her grip has lightened on the woman’s shoulder, and the slightest tick of her brow not hidden by her domino. 

Cass tosses one of the mandarin oranges to Faye, maybe with a bit more force than necessary. Faye catches it easily with her free hand, narrowing her eyes just a bit before handing it to the victim.

“You’re not allergic to citrus, right?” a quiet denial from the woman “Good, good. Nibble on this, okay? I’m going to call the cops and they’ll look after you from there, alright?”

Cass doesn’t stay for the rest of the exchange. Rather, she makes her way back up to the roof to wait. She texts Steph to pass the time and make the dark feeling in her chest calm.

It doesn’t take long for the police to arrive, and Faye has joined her on the roof before the officers turn the corner. Faye makes no move to leave or even put back on her helmet, rather she watches the interaction between the officers and the victim with tense shoulders. She only relaxes once one of the female officers ushers the woman into a squad car, presumably to be interviewed by the police at the station or even taken home.

Faye turns to her then, helmet in hand and about to put it back on when she stops. She eyes Cass with a tilted head and her weight resting on her back foot — surprised, curious. Something about Cass has caught her off guard.

“What’s up?” open ended, easy for Cass to avoid if she so chooses. She doesn’t know if she should be thankful for the option or offended that Faye thinks she needs it. Either way, she doesn’t take it.

“How?” Blunt and to the point. Cass doesn’t like to waste words.

“How... what, exactly?”

“How do you...?” Cass blows air out of her nose and switches to sign. It’s easier and she isn’t in the mood to speak with her voice right now.  _ “How do you deal with the people so well?” _

Faye switches to sign as well, another consideration Cass doesn’t know how to feel about.  _ “I don’t really know? I just look at them, and I know how they feel or kinda what they’re thinking, a lot of times I can get an idea of what they’re about to do. Then I just do what makes them feel safe.” _

That’s...

“Hmmmm.”

Faye snorts a laugh, inelegant and what Steph would call ‘dorky’  _ “You really do spend a lot of time with B, don’t you?” _ Cass raises an eyebrow at her and cocks her hip, projecting ‘you think?’ so heavily that it makes Faye snort again.  _ “Yeah, I’m Captain Obvious. But did that help any?” _

No, it didn’t. It had in fact not answered her question at all, and had instead planted a niggling little idea in the back of her head, one that raises questions Cass isn’t sure she wants the answers to.

But she is a Bat, and that means she’ll find them anyways.

_ “Yes, thank you.” _ she responds instead. Now that she knows to look for it, Cass can see when Faye realizes she’s lying — it’s a very slight straightening of her back, a bite to the inside of her bottom lip, and Cass would bet that Faye blinked behind her domino at least once — and when she decides to drop the topic — a deliberate release of tension in her shoulders and a twitch of the upper lip. No wonder she wears a full helmet, she gives everything away in her face.

_ “Cool. Ready to go?” _ Faye signs. Cass just nods in response. Faye puts back on her helmet and they go off into the night, just a half step off sync with each other.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Please let me know what you think in the comments down below, any and all feedback is appreciated. Constructive criticism is welcome as always, so long as we keep it polite.
> 
> This is another one that got a bit ahead of me lol. I thought it was going to be a one shot but nope, it wants to be 3 parts. The next chapter should be coming sometime in the next week.
> 
> I firmly believe that Sheila Haywood lied about being Jason's mom. If you want to hear more about this or any of my other tin foil hat comics conspiracies, feel free to hit me up on [Tumblr.](https://rainbowfoxes.tumblr.com/)


End file.
